


Until True Love's First Kiss

by Scoby



Series: Reylo experiments [3]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ben Solo Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Body Image, Canon-Typical Violence, Chewbacca ships it, Crack, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, First Kiss, Mediated Marriage Proposal, Miscommunication, Rey Is Unkar Plutt's Daughter, Rey is a gilliand by day and a human by night, Shrek References, Speciesism, True Love's First Kiss, True Love's Kiss, Wordcount: 5.000-10.000, Young Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25130122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scoby/pseuds/Scoby
Summary: Young Ben Solo makes a deal with Snoke: he will get out of Ben's head if he brings him Rey Plutt - the girl Snoke wants to marry, who is under a peculiar spell.-----“But have you… you know… considered at all about… not bringing her to Snoke?”“About every minute since she…”“…did that tree-trunk-air somersault?”“Yes.”
Relationships: Chewbacca & Ben Solo, Chewbacca & Rey & Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Snoke & Ben Solo
Series: Reylo experiments [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872295
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	1. The Job

**Author's Note:**

> I just watched TLJ for the 5th time, which means that I've seen it as many times as Shrek. I thought that a great way to celebrate would be a fusion of these two stories that I love so much :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I can smell the blood of Darth Vader. I can feel his spirit in you. I think you’ll make a fine apprentice. It only depends on how much of your father’s heart you have in you. Closer, I said.”

“Ben, no! I swear it passed. Let’s not go this way! I failed you. I’m sorry.”

His face softened in the glimmer of the lightsabers and looked again like his uncle’s. Ben extinguished his blade and Luke quickly followed suit.

“No, Master, I failed you. He’s everywhere now. In my dreams, in my head when I’m awake. You told me to resist but I couldn’t.”

“You haven’t failed, Ben. You haven’t chosen him. I just saw what he has done to your head, and that made me afraid. But then I saw your heart. You’ve got this. You’ll be able to resist. I see that you’re ready to face him.”

Ben shuddered and his eyes welled up. Luke closed the distance between them and enclosed him in a hug. He did not do this often, to most of his students never. The effect was immediate. Ben clung to him with his arms and let the tears loose.

The skinny little boy whom Luke had started to train almost ten years ago was already taller than him now. The years had passed so quickly. If they really would have fought tonight, Luke was not anymore sure who would have won.

So he was glad it had not happened and focused on holding him tight and letting him cry out all the pain that Snoke had put him under. After a while, almost suddenly, Ben’s tears ran to an end and he was left with a steady resolve. At that moment, he knew that Snoke sensed his decision, too.

Snoke’s end of their connection settled down with less aggression, content to sit back and wait for its prey to arrive to him. That gave Ben’s mind much needed space to make a plan. The next day, he commed his father.

“Dad, I’m doing it now. I need a lift to his ship.”

“Are you sure, Ben?”

“Absolutely. Luke says I’m ready, too.”

Han sighed and was quiet for a moment.

“Ok, Chewie will pick you up tomorrow. Please be careful. Your Mom couldn’t take it if… something would happen.”

“Thank you. I will.”

“Ben, I… I…”

“I know. I love you, too, Dad. Tell Mom I’ll be alright and I’ll come to visit when I’m done with Snoke.”

“I will. She would say: may the Force be with you.”

“With you both, too.”

They closed the call and Ben used the following hours packing his few possessions.  
  


* * *

  
“Commander Hux, I am expecting your report from the Jakku mission.”

Snoke did not have to wait long before he heard the soft rumble of the elevator, followed by the hiss of the door. Hux’s nervous figure strode out and bowed in front of him.

“Supreme Leader, they keep resisting. Unkar Plutt dominates the whole planet. The people do everything he says. Half of our shuttles were blown up by people who ran into them with bombs under their clothing. They rather die than bow to anybody but their master.”

“Then you should make sure that they die.”

“Bu-but Supreme Leader, can we afford losing that kind of power? You said yourself that so obedient people under our control could get us anything we want.”

“Doesn’t matter. You've offered them our alliance and fired a warning shot. Since they are not obeying us, they must die, even if it means that we have to wait for finishing Starkiller so that we can blast the whole planet.”

“There is another way, Supreme Leader. A diplomatic way to get them into alliance.”

“Go on, Commander.”

“Plutt has a daughter, Rey. He keeps her locked in a castle, in the highest room in the tallest tower, guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. He has announced that he gives her hand to the one who slays the dragon and rescues her.”

Hux showed Snoke a hologram of a gilliand girl whose smile was as wide as her nose and made her diagonal eyes almost disappear in dimples. Light grey drapes hang down from where her head connected to her shoulders and passed across her chest and around her waist, loosely hugging her curves. She held a desert lily in her blunt, sand-coloured fingers.

“She’s pretty”, Snoke purred.

“You marry Rey, Plutt will be our ally and the people of Jakku under our command.”

“You have an idea there. I promote you to a General.”  
  


* * *

  
The Millennium Falcon landed next to the temple, in its usual place that Han, Leia and Chewie used when visiting Ben. The students had already gathered around it when the boarding ramp hissed open and Chewie walked out into a sea of hugs, friendly punches and shuffles on his fur. He remembered each one of Luke’s students by name and got busy with greeting everyone as usual:

“Long time no see! … You’ve changed your hair, looks great! … Is that a bicep you have there, not so skinny anymore, huh? … You’ve grown stronger with the Force, I can feel it", he pretended to faint, "... How are your grandparents now? … How’s it going with your painting?”

Finally, he made his leisurely way through to Luke and Ben and enclosed them one by one in a tight, long and furry hug.

“Ready?” he asked as he shuffled Ben’s hair.

“You mustn’t do that before I meet Snoke.” Ben started to arrange his hair back to order.

“Understood. Depending on how far he is, I’d estimate I still have time for some dozens of reps.”

He shuffled Ben’s hair back to a mess again. Ben gave up resisting, hugged Luke briefly for the last time and grabbed his bag. He waved his hand at the other students before they closed the boarding ramp and sat down in the cockpit.

Ben closed his eyes and tuned into the Force, opening up just enough to be receptive to Snoke’s location. His presence was loud like a yellow pulsating beacon. After extracting enough information, Ben closed their connection firmly again and punched in the coordinates.

Chewie was already halfway through the take-off sequence, humming with enthusiasm, or rather, making sounds that Ben had learned to be his way of humming, even though it sounded a lot louder and less musical than human vocal cords would make it.

They had time for several dejarik matches before reaching Supremacy. Ben let Chewie win most of them but not the last one. If this was to be his end, he wanted to go with the memory of a victory on the top of his mind. Chewie accepted it and did not protest when Ben switched off the table with a satisfied smile.

“We’re close. I’m going already into the escape pod. Once we are out of lightspeed, just drop me off and get going as fast as you can. Thank you, Chewie, for everything…”

His lower lip quivered as he leaned in for a hug that might be the last one. But Chewie held him back with a hand on his shoulder.

“No, we’re flying in with this ship.”

“Are you crazy? We’ll be blasted like a piece of junk.”

“You said Snoke has been after you for years. He wouldn’t miss the opportunity to meet you now that you’re so close.”

“But as soon as I’m gone, they’re going to blast you.”

“But not as long as I’m with you.”

“No no no, Chewie, I have to go alone.”

“Of course. Alone with me.”

They were interrupted by a jolt that told them they were out of hyperspace. Ben realised that he was still out of the escape pod. His plan of dropping off quickly would not work now, especially not when Chewie was already on his way to the cockpit to start taking them through a fleet of star destroyers.

All that Ben could do was to rearrange his hair after Chewie’s latest shuffle and light up his presence in the Force. And Snoke responded with a command to his crew to let the Millennium Falcon through.

Five stormtroopers were ready to meet them in Supremacy’s hangar and escort them to an elevator that took them straight up to Snoke’s throne room. The room was full of the presence that Ben had got so familiar with in his own head, now enclosing him from all directions.

“Young Solo, welcome. Come closer, child”, Snoke said with open arms.

Ben did not move or speak, just held his eyes in a defiant gaze.

“I can smell the blood of Darth Vader. I can feel his spirit in you. I think you’ll make a fine apprentice. It only depends on how much of your father’s heart you have in you. Closer, I said.”

He hovered Ben a little above the ground and slid him forward until he was right in front of the throne, close enough to touch his face. Chewie followed by his side.

“Is the wookie your servant?”

“I’m his friend”, Chewie snorted. He was lifting up a fist and aiming at Snoke’s head when Ben took his wrist to steady his arm.

“I’m not here to become your apprentice.” His eyes stayed fixed at Snoke. “I’m here to tell you to get out of my head.”

Snoke tilted his face. He shifted his focus to talking to Ben without words, showing him images of everything he could give him. The whole galaxy at his feet. Everybody doing as he said without a question. Snoke even had a new name planned out for him, one that the whole galaxy would learn to fear and respect.

He could get his way with everything. All the good he ever wanted to do would be in his power. He could bring justice and peace to every world. He could end hunger, poverty and environmental destruction. All he would need to do would be to join Snoke.

They had gone this through with Luke many times. As soon as Ben would join Snoke, all the good that would be in his power to do would immediately cease to be in his desires. It would be a losing game. So he shook his head.

“No?” Snoke asked. “Perhaps a bit too much in your heart, then.”

And he attacked Ben’s heart with a sudden thrust through the Force. It almost physically threw him back. Snoke's spirit was inside his now, doing something like a spring cleaning. He was throwing around memories and emotions into a new order, draining Ben’s soul.

“Get. Out. Of. Me”, he forced out of his mouth. “Or die.”

He lit up his lightsabre and lifted it in preparation for a stroke.

“You have a fiery spirit, Solo. Vader’s heir turned into a true Jedi. Let’s say I would do as you ask, what would you pay for it?”

“I owe you nothing.”

“If I lose you, I lose an apprentice.”

“I’ve never been your apprentice. Your own dreams mean nothing to me.”

“No, my will is everything. If I lose you, you pay for it.”

“How?”

“You do a job for me.”

“What kind of job?”

“I need somebody to go to Jakku and bring my bride to me.”

Ben and Chewie looked at each other in disbelief.

“Your bride?” Ben asked.

“Yes. She’s the daughter of Unkar Plutt, tyrant of that planet. Go to Jakku and bring her to me.”

“Sounds easy.” Chewie shrugged when Ben looked at him. Ben turned back to Snoke to say:

“Ok, but you get out of my head first. If I feel even a nudge from you, I drop it, and you won’t have her.”

“Deal.” Snoke retracted his invisible grip from around Ben.

He felt freer than he had in years. Even breathing felt easier. He doused his lightsabre and set off towards the elevator with Chewie. They were only halfway across the throne room when Snoke continued:

“By the way, Plutt hates humans. He will probably make you his slave as soon as he sees your face. I’d recommend you to wear this.”

He cast something black and heavy towards Ben. When he picked it up from his feet, he noticed it was a black helmet, made to cover the whole head. It had a silvery inlay around the eyes, or around where the eyes should be, but this helmet had no gap to see through. He took it along as they made their way back to their ship.


	2. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I really don’t think this is a good idea.”  
> “Just take off the helmet.”  
> “Not going to.”  
> “Take. It. Off.”  
> “No!”  
> “Now!!!”

Now that Snoke had no more direct access to Ben, he had sent a stormtrooper to equip the Falcon with a datapad containing everything that they needed for their job: directions to the Plutt palace, protocol for behaving there, lines for what Ben should say to him, word by word, as well as the coordinates of Starkiller - the First Order base where the wedding would take place and where Rey was to be delivered.

On the way, instead of playing dejarik, Chewie helped Ben memorise his lines and they practiced the audience with Unkar Plutt several times. When he was confident that he remembered everything, he took out the helmet Snoke had thrown at him to practice wearing it. He had no idea how he would even make it to the palace following the correct protocol if he could not see anything.

But as soon as he covered his head with the helmet, he noticed that it enhanced his senses instead of impairing them. Something in front of his eyes made them see more than he ever had. Looking at Chewie at arm’s length, he could see a couple of fleas strolling up a hair on his shoulder. And he could hear distant rattles of loose bolts from the other side of the ship. Relieved, he sat down in the co-pilot’s seat again, ready for landing on Jakku.

The Plutt palace was low and wide, with wavy, colourful walls and roofs and a multitude of side wings, just like wealthy crolutes and gilliands like to build on Crul. Here on Jakku, rising from the vastness of sand, it looked like out of place. In the distance behind it, Ben and Chewie could make out the silhouette of a tall castle. Ben’s enhanced vision could also make out the windows and shapes of the stones in the walls. They wondered if that was Plutt’s property, too.

A gilliand servant received them at the gate after an appropriate number of bows and took them to her master. In Plutt’s audience room, they bowed and knelt with the awkward hand gesture they had learned from Snoke’s instructions. Ben spoke slowly, still unaccustomed to listening to his own voice through the modulator:

“Your Highness Unkar Plutt, I kneel in front of you as your humble servant, Ben Solo. May it be known to you that the First Order seeks your friendship and alliance and wishes to seal it with a bond of kinship. On behalf of Supreme Leader Snoke, I ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage.”

Unkar Plutt laughed so that his whole upper body bounced. He pointed with a blunt finger, the others only slightly curving towards his pink palm, at the castle that they could now see more clearly through the window.

“There she is in the castle, in the highest room in the tallest tower. If you slay the dragon and rescue her, she’s yours to do whatever you want with her.”

“Dragon?” Ben looked at Chewie who looked puzzled only for a second before he gathered his confidence again, nodded in assurance and stood up.

They could not quite remember the farewell protocol, but it did not seem to matter as Plutt’s attention had already drifted back to the holodrama he had been watching before they arrived. So they just turned and let the servant guide them back to the gate.

They boarded the Falcon again to fly up to the castle. It was surrounded by a deep moat filled with molten lava that they had to cross via a narrow bridge. The lower levels of the castle were dotted with armed skeletons laying here and there, apparently belonging to Rey’s former suitors. They recognised several different species. Either Rey herself or the powerful position as Unkar Plutt’s son-in-law must be wildly desired across the galaxy.

But they did not see any sign of the dragon. When they found the beginning of the stairs to the tallest tower, Chewie stayed downstairs to keep watch as Ben climbed up. Just like Plutt had said, when he opened the door to the highest room, he saw her.

She lay on a bed, eyes closed but holding a desert lily in her hand in too perfect a position to really be sleeping. When Ben approached her, looked like the tiny lips under her giant nose subtly puckered as if… He would not have time to think about why. The dragon would be after them at any minute. He grasped her shoulders and shook her awake.

“Are you Rey Plutt?”

“I am.” A smile lit up her whole face. It lifted her cheekbones so that Ben could make out tiny freckle-like marks on them. They were so small that he doubted if they would be visible at all without his helmet.

“Great, let’s go then.” He took her hand and started to pull her towards the door.

“Wait! You came to rescue me. Shouldn’t this be a romantic moment to savour?”

“Sorry, babe, no time…”

Somewhere on the lower levels, they heard first the dragon roar, then Chewie.

“You didn’t slay the dragon?” Rey asked as they ran down the stairs.

“I'll get to it.”

“But you were supposed to do that first. Just like all the others.”

“Yeah, right before they burst into flame and never got to rescue you.”

They passed a couple of skeletons on the stairs.

“That’s not the point. What kind of…?” Rey’s voice died when they reached the bottom of the stairs and saw the dragon.

Chewie had managed to hustle a chain around its neck and was trying to hold it steady with it while dodging frequent breaths of fire. Ben ran straight to help him.

“Ben, look!” Chewie pointed towards the dragon's chest. Close to where its left front leg started, there was a spot where the orange and white scales had come off and the skin below turned black.

“So that’s why you’re breathing fire”, Ben muttered calmly to the dragon.

He touched Chewie’s shoulder to signal him to be gentler with the chain, locked eyes with the dragon and started to approach it step by step. Its breathing steadied and the fire started to come from its nostrils as smaller flames.

Ben eased his way under the dragon until he could reach the black spot. Gently, he placed his hand on it and closed his eyes. He let his breathing steady and focused on connecting to the Force and channelling life force energy through himself into his hand and to the wounded skin it touched.

Little by little, the tissues repaired themselves and healthy skin and scales grew back. He let his hand go, took a few steps back and looked at the dragon’s face again. No fire came out of it anymore. Its muscles relaxed and it let out a sound that resembled purring.

“That’s it, let’s go.”

Ben turned towards the exit but the dragon’s sound turned into a whine. It followed them and tried to push its cheek against Rey’s. When she pushed it away, it snuggled against Chewie’s fur instead. He let out an irritated growl and it finally tried to rest its head on Ben’s shoulder.

“It doesn’t want to part from us. Can we take it along?” Rey asked, now stroking a white part in the scales on the dragon's side.

“We can’t fit it in our ship”, Ben protested.

“I think we can.” Chewie unwound the chain from around the dragon’s neck and wrapped his arm around it instead.

Ben rolled his eyes but continued his way outside, getting frequent, gentle nudges on the side of his head from the creature following him.

It turned out that the dragon was terrified of the lava-filled moat. But if they tried to take the bridge and leave it behind, it broke into a heart-wrenching wail. In the end, Rey had to climb on its back and hold its head up towards the sky while Chewie led it step by step over the narrow bridge.

Once they were safely on the other side, Rey stopped to breath deep, her eyes closed in enjoyment. She had not been outdoors in years.

“You did it, you rescued me!”

She made a pirouette of joy and turned to Ben.

“And you…” her eyes caught the lightsabre on his belt. “You’re a Jedi. What’s your name?”

“Ben Solo. And this is Chewbacca. Everyone calls him Chewie.”

Rey smiled in awe at both of them.

“So, Master Solo, the…”

“Actually, I’m a Jedi but not a Master. Just call me Ben.”

“Ok, Ben, the battle is won. You may remove your helmet.”

“Uh... no.”

“Why not?”

“I… I have helmet hair.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well, you should…”

“But then… How will you kiss me?”

“What? That wasn’t part of the job.”

“Maybe it’s a perk”, Chewie suggested.

“No, it’s destiny”, Rey corrected. “That’s why my father locked me in that tower, for somebody to rescue me and share… True Love’s First Kiss.”

“With Ben?” Chewie scratched his head. “Wait wait wait… You think Ben is your True Love?”

“Well, yeah.”

Ben and Chewie both broke into laughter, Chewie’s loud and heart-filled, Ben’s accidentally menacing through the modulator.

“What’s so funny?” Rey asked with her hands on her hips.

“Let’s just say I’m not your type”, Ben recovered his voice to answer.

“Of course you are! You’re my rescuer. Now remove your helmet!”

“I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Just take off the helmet.”

“Not going to.”

“Take. It. Off.”

“No!”

“Now!!!”

“Ok, fine! As you command, Your Highness.”

He found the mechanism on the sides that made the front piece unlock so that he could lift the helmet off and let it drop on the sand. When Rey looked into his eyes, her smile died and she turned away.

“You’re… a human. This is all wrong. My father’s never going to accept.”

Her desolation made Ben feel sorry. It was no wonder that she had been waiting for this day throughout the long years in the tower. And now he had brought on her a grave disappointment.

“Look, Rey, actually, I was sent to rescue you by Supreme Leader Snoke. He’s the one who wants to marry you.”

“Then why didn’t he come to rescue me himself?”

“Good question! You should ask him when we get there.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. You can tell your Supreme Leader Snoke that if he wants to rescue me properly, I’ll be waiting for him right here.”

She sat on the ground, determined arms crossed.

“Hey! I’m no one’s messenger boy, alright? I’m a delivery boy.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

Rey squinted her eyes at him so that they almost disappeared. He ignored the expression, lifted his hand next to her head and gave a nudge to the brain through the Force to put her to sleep. He lifted the unconscious body on his shoulder, arms and head hanging against his back and legs dangling in front of him, and carried her into the Falcon.

Inside, it turned out that Chewie had been right. They could fit even the dragon into the ship and drag it along the corridors when it stretched itself as long and skinny as it could. It filled almost the whole floor of the main hold, leaving the others no more space than to cram on the sofa. But it insisted on staying in the same room with them, happily snuffling their feet.


	3. The Ambush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Ben, I’m not Force-sensitive, but I can smell pheromones, and your body keeps spraying a cloud of them around itself when you're with her.”

Rey woke up furious, remembering what had happened and feeling all the aches caused by sleeping in a sitting position. Ben and Chewie barely managed to distract her by starting to teach her dejarik. She ended up learning it quickly and they spent the following hours playing.

Rey had a strange capacity to rejoice in elegant moves no matter who made them or if they damaged or killed her own holomonsters. That caused her to frequently laugh in a way that made her dimples swallow her eyes. Seeing it drew a smile on Ben’s face every time. Chewie stayed unforgiving, though, and roared at Rey any time he lost a holomonster to her.

Starkiller was further, though, than they could reach with their fuel reserves, so after a few hours they made planetfall on Takodana. As nobody wanted to drag the dragon back and forth along the corridor again, Ben mind-tricked it into wanting to stay behind and wait for them. Outside, each drew an indulgent breath of the fresh lakeside forest air.

“I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy”, Rey sighed in wonder.

“And there’s more”, Ben said. “We’re close to Maz’s castle. Let’s go there for a sunset drink. We can get the fuel from her, too.”

“Sunset?” Rey half-whispered and looked around herself in panic. She could see the sun about to sink behind the hills on the far side of the lake next to them. “No. That can wait until tomorrow. We should camp now.”

Her gaze wandered until she saw something between the trees.

“That looks perfect.”

“That cave?” Ben asked in disbelief. “There would be a bunk for you on the Falcon.”

“No, this is perfect.” Rey was already on her way towards the cave. “It just needs… a door.”

She knocked off a sheet of thick bark from a giant tree and slammed it across the opening of the cave as she disappeared inside.

Ben and Chewie found satisfactory drinks on the Falcon and sat by the lakeside to watch the sunset. The night air in this part of Takodana was pleasantly warm and they stayed up until stars appeared. They tried to recognise familiar stars from this angle and guess what kind of constellations the people of this world saw on the night sky.

Little did they know about a human eye that was watching them through a crack in the improvised cave door.

In the morning, they woke up into a sizzling sound and a delicious smell from Falcon’s kitchenette. The dragon was already eating something on the floor.

“How would you like your eggs?” Rey asked, even though she was already clearly frying them.

When Ben stared with blank eyes instead of answering, she understood and poured him a cup of steaming caf first.

“I’m sorry about yesterday", she said. "We got off into a bit of a bad start, huh?”

Chewie was quickly ready to forgive when approaching the sizzling pan.

“From what bird are these?” he asked as he loaded three fried eggs on his plate.

“How would I know? I first thought that it looked a lot like a bloggin on Jakku, but when it exploded, I noticed that its insides were mostly yellow, and in a bloggin they are blue.”

“You exploded a bird to get us fried eggs?” Ben asked.

Rey shrugged, took a bite from her own plate and changed the topic.

Maz sold them enough fuel to make it to Starkiller and for Ben and Chewie to fly home after that. They were on their way back to the ship with two cannisters, when they heard a voice from the forest:

“That’s it. She’s selling it illegally. Stop them.”

Blaster fire started towards them from between the trees. Ben had his lightsabre quickly out and blocking it with rapid moves. Noticing that they could not stop them by shooting, their attackers swarmed out of the forest and surrounded them. Chewie shot several and Ben tried to fight the rest off, being pulled closer and closer to the trees.

He glanced back at Rey but did not see her. From his other side, he heard a fierce roar. When he turned to look, he saw that Rey had made it to the edge of the forest, seized a long wooden stick and was using that makeshift weapon along with her kicks and elbows to fight back three hooded and masked creatures.

Astonished, Ben barely dodged a blow aimed at his own head. When he had a chance to glance at Rey next time, she had already struck down two of her attackers. The last one she took down by running up a tree trunk and landing with a somersault on its head.

During the second that Ben lost being mesmerised at her, somebody grabbed his throat from behind and gripped his lightsabre hand motionless. He tried to twist himself loose and bend forward, but the body behind him was heavier than his own and he could not use himself as leverage as he was used to.

Rey saw it, ran to him and thrusted the end of her stick straight past Ben’s head, into the middle of the other one behind it. The grasp around Ben loosened as the body around him fell down. For a moment, he just stared at Rey in awe.

Chewie picked up the cannisters and reminded them to keep going. If Maz was wanted for illegal fuel sales, another ambush could happen any time. Absent-mindedly, Ben followed, but not without continuing frequent glances at Rey who walked by his side, now relaxed, her nose stretched even wider than normal to savour the final breaths of Takodana air.

The shields of Starkiller lowered to let them through, as Ben gave the code from Snoke’s datapad. When Rey saw the First Order base from the cockpit windows, she shivered and lifted her gaze to the woods behind it.

“Can we land there?” She pointed towards the forest. “If I have to live here, I want to spend a final night in a forest.”

They agreed and landed in the middle of the trees, close to a structure that looked like a comm tower. This time they also helped the dragon out, not having the heart to keep it stuck in the same position for another day. Besides, the air was chilly, so they welcomed its help with lighting a fire that they could all gather around.

This time Chewie hunted them a bunch of some kind of rodents. Hovering his face right above the ground, he could smell where they moved under the snow and catch them with a quick hand. They roasted them in a stick over the fire until they were crispy on the outside and juicy from inside.

When everyone’s stomach was pleasantly full and the fire about to die down, Chewie volunteered to gather more firewood. Ben and Rey were left with the dragon by the embers in silence, extending their hands and feet closer to the warmth.

“I guess I’ll be spending my evenings a little differently from tomorrow onwards.” Rey looked absent-mindedly to the direction where she knew the base to be behind the trees.

“Maybe you can come to visit me. I’ll probably have Jedi assignments here and there around the galaxy from now on. When I’m nearby, we could meet up on some of the planets in this region and have caf some time.”

“I’d like that.”

Rey lifted her diagonal eyes to meet his horizontal ones. Her face was so relaxed now that Ben could see the hazel irises that so often were hidden in Rey’s smile or laughter. Then they heard a growl right behind them:

“Awww, how romantic, look at the sunset!”

Chewie had returned with his arms full of firewood.

“Sunset?” Rey panicked again, just like on Takodana. “It’s late. I-it’s very late.”

She stood up and ran to the comm tower. At its root, there was a shed, apparently meant for staff but now empty. She stepped in and slammed the door shut behind her.

“Oh! I see what’s going on here.” Chewie threw a couple of sticks to feed the fire again and sat next to Ben.

“What are you talking about?”

“Ben, I’m not Force-sensitive, but I can smell pheromones, and your body keeps spraying a cloud of them around itself when you're with her.”

“Oh, shut off your dirty mind, Chewie! She’s of different species.”

“Did you know that gilliands are exclusively female, so they actually most often mate with other species, typically crolutes…”

“There, you said it, with crolutes. Do I look like a crolute to you?”

“No, but neither does Snoke.”

“Well, Snoke _is_ sick to begin with.”

“But have you… you know… considered at all about… not bringing her to Snoke?”

“About every minute since she…”

“…did that tree-trunk-air somersault?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s make a strategy. I go to her now and, just casually, bring you up in the conversation and try to find out how she really feels about you. If she feels the same, you can make a move tomorrow before going to the base.”

“You’re crazy.”

“And you need somebody crazy or you never get anything done.”

With those words, he already stood up and set off towards the comm tower with his most casual-looking steps accompanied by humming. Ben had to laugh and cover his face with his palm at the same time.


	4. The Delivery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m anxious to meet Supreme Leader Snoke. Can we have the wedding already today, before sunset?”

A dim light crept out through the edges of the shed door. Rey must have made herself at home inside. Chewie knocked on the door but opened it without giving time for her to stop him. Once he looked inside, he was shocked. He did not see Rey anywhere, only a strange human girl. With a quick move, he had his bowcaster in his hands, aimed at her.

“Chewie, it’s me. I’m Rey, in this body.” The girl lifted her hands up.

She took a couple of steps closer and Chewie could notice something familiar, the voice, the clothing and the eyes, though now larger and horizontally positioned on her face.

“Rey? What happened to you? You’re, uh, different.”

“I’ve always gone like this when the sun sets. It’s a spell that I’ve been under my whole life.”

“Your whole life?”

“Yes. My mother died in childbirth, so I was raised by my father who was completely ashamed of me. Day-time, he would play with me and hold me in his arms and keep telling me how much he loved me, and night-time, he would hit me and call me a monster.”

“That sounds awful.”

“It was. I had to always be home inside the palace before sunset. Then one night it happened that I ran into a sandstorm at Niima outpost and had to stay there overnight. Several people saw me transform and my father was mad when he learned about it. Then he locked me up in the tower and made the announcement that he was ready to get me married to whomever would rescue me, just to get me to be somebody else’s burden instead. I guess some part of him still loved me as he at least wanted to make it a bit difficult with the dragon and all. Maybe that will be the last bit of love I’ll ever know.”

Rey’s blindness to her own adorability wrenched Chewie’s heart.

“No, Rey, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of love ahead of you.”

“How is Supreme Leader Snoke, my future husband? I mean, is he more like me day-time or night-time?”

“Errr… I'd say… he’s something in between.”

Rey nodded, considering possible consequences. Aloud she said:

“I don’t know what will happen then, when we kiss. The spell says that True Love’s First Kiss will cause me to take love’s true form. I don’t know what it will be with him. What if he’s more of a human and turns me into a human body for the rest of my life?”

“Then I’m sure he’ll love you as a human.”

“Who could ever love a monster!” Rey almost screamed as her eyes welled up with tears.

“Rey, do you really think that all human beings are monsters?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t met a lot of them myself. My father used to protect me from them as much as he could. He has human slaves for everything, scavenging for parts, taking care of his property, fighting off the First Order. He even refuses to waste money on blasters or cannons. He just has humans run at the First Order ships with bombs under their clothing. And he always said that they are monsters who deserve to be slaves.”

“I see. But don’t you think that, just maybe, you should form your own opinion? Think, for example, about Ben. He’s not that bad, is he?”

“Ben?”

Rey blushed as it dawned to her what Chewie was hinting towards. Her father had told her that humans drank children’s blood, tortured animals for fun and strangled their own parents to death as soon as they had grown up enough to overpower them. But as far as she knew, Ben had done none of that. In fact, he seemed kind and she had been enjoying his company.

The way he had touched her hand when taking an empty fuel cannister from her after filling up the Falcon on Takodana had even felt sort of tender, affectionate in a way Rey had not thought customary for humans. And even though he looked scarcely attractive to her day-time self, when she closed her eyes to sleep after sunset and remembered his tall, muscular frame, wide and plush mouth, large dark amber eyes and lustrous black hair, a ripple of heat rushed through her night-time body.

Chewie smelled what she was thinking. The gilliand hormones that he smelled from day-time Rey had a different chemistry that was difficult for him to interpret. But the cloud around her now was unmistakable. Countless of times Chewie had arrived with Han to his home after a job, noticing as soon as the front door opened that Leia had filled the house with this same scent just from anticipation. Then he would always give a brief hug to them both and get quickly out of the way. With these younger humans, it seemed not to be that easy.

“You know what, Rey, at least you should tell him that you’re also a human by night.”  
  


* * *

  
The dragon had fallen asleep on the snow. Little curls of smoke escaped from its nostrils at every outbreath. Evidently, it had an internal system for warming itself. Ben sat by the fire for a while, listening to its steady breathing, but soon he was overtaken by the cold that bit his still body – and the curiosity about what Chewie and Rey were talking about him. He stood up, shook fresh blood into his legs, walked to the comm tower and pressed his ear on the door of the shed.

The door was so thick that he only heard muffled sounds. Only once, Rey raised her frustrated voice high enough that he heard clearly what she half-shouted:

“Who could ever love a monster!”

Apparently, Chewie got her calmed down, as the volume dropped to inaudible again. But Ben had heard enough about how she felt about him. He broke into a brisk walk through the woods towards the Starkiller base.  
  


* * *

  
In the morning, again in her gilliand body, Rey walked out of the shed and straight to the Falcon. The dragon was still asleep outside next to the ashes of yesterday’s fire. Inside the ship, she found Ben and Chewie finishing their breakfast in a heavy silence.

When Chewie saw in her eyes the resolve he had been hoping for, he offered to go to make their beds in the crew quarters, leaving Rey alone with Ben. Ben swallowed the final sip of his caf and slammed the cup down on the table without looking at her.

“Are you alright?” Rey asked.

“Perfect, never been better.”

“There’s something I have to tell you”, she started.

“I know everything I need to know about you.”

“You do?”

“I heard enough last night. You seem to be such great friends with Chewie that you can tell him everything you can’t say to my face.”

“Like what?”

“Like ‘Who could ever love a monster?’”

“But… I thought that wouldn't matter to you.”

“Yeah? Well, it does.”

He stood up and strode past her and all the way outside. Rey followed him, only to walk straight into a group of five stormtroopers waiting next to the ship.

“Ah, right on time”, Ben greeted them.

“Rey Plutt?” One of the stormtroopers looked at the gilliand who had just walked out of the ship.

“As promised. Now, my payment.” Ben held out his hand.

“Very well. Contract signed by Supreme Leader Snoke himself to retreat permanently from your mind. Only missing your signature, Sir.” The trooper pressed a datapad in his open hand.

“You’re trading me… for yourself?” Rey’s voice was furious and utterly disappointed at him. Two troopers were already dragging her on a speeder but she refused to take her resentful eyes off Ben.

He could not look back to meet her gaze. Too overwhelming shame filled him. But he knew that he was doing what was right. Snoke and Rey’s marriage could, in the worst case, only lead to Rey being unhappy. That Ben could still try to alleviate by staying as her friend, comming her often and finding reasons to come to this region from time to time so that they could meet and he could see her smile and laugh again.

The other scenario was far worse. Ben’s own powers in Snoke’s hands could destroy the galaxy. And if he would let Snoke keep attacking his mind like in the past years, he could not resist forever. So he forced himself to ignore Rey and focus on reading the contract.

There was very little to be trusted in Snoke and he had probably used a squadron of even slier lawyers to formulate the text. But Ben could not find any loopholes or seedy terms. The contract described exactly how Snoke would leave his personal space without any further invasions in any form. It even specified the galactic court where Ben could appeal should he ever break his promise.

And in the end, next to Snoke’s signature, he added his own.

He saved his own copy on a memory drive and handed the pad back to the stormtrooper. He noticed that Rey was sitting on a speeder now, between two troopers and talking to them:

“I’m anxious to meet Supreme Leader Snoke. Can we have the wedding already today, before sunset?”

“I’m sure it can be arranged if you insist, Your Highness”, her escort replied.

As they speeded away, the real worst-case scenario hit Ben’s mind. What if Rey was Force-sensitive, too? He had not sensed anything special about her, even though she seemed to be past the age by when Force awakenings usually happen. But could it be that her awakening had been just delayed because of the years spent locked up in the tower? The way she ran up the tree trunk to jump when they were ambushed on Takodana – that was nothing that just any normal person could do.

In that case, Snoke could use the marriage as a way to get close to her and eventually make _her_ his apprentice. That could make the First Order invincible. Perhaps, Snoke had already sensed something about her, and this whole job had been about a lot more than just his disgusting plot to get laid.

As his panic was growing, Chewie appeared out of the Falcon.

“Did you just… let Rey go?”

“Yeah, so what?” he grunted back. His sympathetic worries for Rey and the galaxy were gone as soon as Chewie’s presence reminded him about Rey’s true feelings for him. “The job is done. Snoke is out of my head for good. I promised Mom and Dad I’d go visit home now. Are you coming along?”

“Don’t change the subject. Are you just dumping her when all she ever did was like you, maybe even love you?”

“Love me? I heard you two last night. She called me a monster. Is that what you call love?”

“She wasn't talking about you. She was talking about, uh, somebody else.”

“She wasn't talking about me?” Ben looked down and passed a hand through his hair as he considered this possibility. After all, Chewie’s plan had been to fish out Rey’s feelings for Ben, but there was only one louder sentence in the conversation that he had properly heard outside. “Well, then who was she talking about?”

“Ummm, I promised not to say, it was her secret… But you know what, why don’t you go and ask her?”

Once he suggested it aloud, it felt obvious to Ben, exactly what his life had been leading up to. His eyes lit up with a resolute spark that Chewie always loved seeing in them. He turned to the woods and broke into a run towards the base.

Chewie followed him, but in a moment they both stopped when they heard crushing sounds on their tail. The dragon had woken up and was not ready to be left alone. Ben took a deep breath and gathered all his patience and power to address it both through words and through the Force:

“Listen, buddy, we appreciate that you like us, but this is dangerous. The First Order is there. Do you know what that means? They’ll blast us if they see us. So you must stay quiet and out of sight. Understood?”

The dragon blinked. Since no other response seemed possible to get out of it, Ben and Chewie continued, this time slowly, so that it was able to follow them with quiet steps, snaking its body through the midst of the trees.


	5. The Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in marriage, let them speak now or for...”
> 
> “Now! Now!” Chewie urged and Ben sprinted forward towards the stage.
> 
> “I object!!!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

When they reached the edge of the forest, they saw the huge building that housed the majority of the base. They turned and continued under the cover of trees, scouting for possible entrances in the wall. Last night, Ben had marched straight to the gate and announced that he had a delivery for Snoke and where it could be picked up. Now they would actually have to get in and that would not be as easy.

They found a few alternative entrances but all of them were heavily guarded. Once they arrived at the end of the side they were scouting and got a glimpse around the corner, they saw a totally different landscape. Over a vast area, all the trees had been cut to open up a large plain. Next to the building, it rose up to a high stage.

They remembered seeing the plain already when flying over it, but from the ground it looked even larger. The lower plain was empty apart from a several droids who appeared to be cleaning the floor structure. On the stage, there were more droids and a few people in officer uniforms. They were all hustling back and forth, filling the area with a curious assembly of balloons and winter flowers.

“No way to get in from this side, either”, Ben sighed.

“Can’t you see? We don’t have to get in. This is where they’ll have the wedding. We just wait and they are bound to come out here”, Chewie growled in excitement.

Ben had been wishing for a more private occasion to talk to Rey. But for the moment, he could not come up with any secure plan to break into the base, so he settled for waiting for her to come out. They huddled together under the trees to stay warm, not knowing how long they would have to wait.

They ended up waiting for hours. Chewie caught them food that the dragon carefully roasted with mild puffs of smoky fire through its nostrils. The sun was already low when the plain started to fill up with First Order officers in the first rows close to the stage and endless ranks of stormtroopers stretching to distance behind them.

The stage emptied apart from the excessive decoration, the First Order Generals, who positioned themselves in a sparse row across it, and an old green-skinned twi’lek who stood in the middle in front of them. After a while, music started playing and Snoke and Rey emerged from the opposite ends of the stage.

Ben rose up and took a step forward but Chewie grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

“Wait, Ben! You want do this _right_ , don't you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“There's a line you have to wait for. The officiant is going to say, ‘speak now or forever hold their peace’. That's when you say, ‘I object!’”

“I don't have time for this!”

“Listen to me! Look, you love this girl, don't you?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’ve got to do this in style! Girls love romantic gestures.”

“All right. When does he say the line?”

“We have to listen.”

They crept as close to the stage as they dared, and the twi’lek started speaking:

“We gather here today to celebrate the wedding of Supreme Leader Snoke and Rey Plutt. May this union be a haven of love and mutual support in your life together as well as a source of peace and companionship between the First Order and the people of Jakku. I ask you, Supreme Leader Snoke, do you take Rey Plutt to be your wife, to love and to cherish her until death do you part?”

“I do”, Snoke replied.

“I ask you, Rey Plutt, do you take Supreme Leader Snoke to be your husband, to love and to cherish him until death do you part?”

“I do”, Rey replied.

“If anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in marriage, let them speak now or for...”

“Now! Now!” Chewie urged and Ben sprinted forward towards the stage.

“I object!!!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“What are you doing here?” Snoke snorted at him.

“Rey, I need to talk to you”, he said, ignoring Snoke.

“Oh, now you want to talk? It's a little late for that, so if you'll excuse me…” Rey’s voice was still angry at him from the morning.

“But you can't marry him.”

“And why not?” Rey looked back at Ben defiantly, with hands on her hips.

“Because he's not your True Love.”

“And what do you know about True Love?” Snoke asked spitefully.

“Well, I… Uh… I mean…”

“Oh, I see. The Jedi has fallen in love with the Supreme Leader’s bride!” Snoke started to laugh and, at his signal, the crowd of officers and stormtroopers joined him.

The only one who did not laugh was Rey.

“Ben, is that true?”

“Who cares?” Snoke grasped Rey’s arm before Ben could answer. “It's preposterous! Rey, my love, we're but a kiss away from our Happily Ever After. So now, let’s kiss."

But Rey saw that the sun was already sinking behind the horizon and shook herself free from him. She looked straight into Ben’s eyes as the final rays of sunlight gleamed on her face and the long white embroidered fur coat she was wearing. And as soon as the sun disappeared, her whole body transformed.

She grew taller and thinner. Her head lifted upwards on top of a neck and dark brown hair grew on it. Her hazel eyes expanded and twisted into new positions and her nose shrank and mouth widened.

Ben’s jaw dropped and Rey instinctively covered her face in her hands, partly ashamed, partly afraid of being hit again like had happened so many times to this version of her face. But Snoke took a hold of her shoulders and turned her towards him again.

“I don’t care which species you are. I just want an alliance with Jakku. So let’s finish this.”

But he never got to see Rey’s human face. Chewie had run to the stage with the dragon. With one leap, it was behind Rey and stretched its neck over her to swallow Snoke whole.

The Generals moved closer to them, reaching for their blasters, but they all stopped when the dragon breathed a warning shot of fire on a flower arrangement. Chewie patted it on the side.

Rey still kept her face covered, only looking through her fingers. But Ben could see how she breathed out in relief. He touched softly her hand. He had already adored touching her gilliand hand whenever there was a chance. But this was something extra. Her skin was now more like his, and it sent a thrill through his whole body. But Rey did not let him pull her hands down.

“Everybody’s watching. Everybody’s watching.”

“Does it matter?”

“They’ll see.”

“You don’t have to care.” He was stroking her hair now. “Just let me see. Let me look at the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“What?”

“Yes, that’s what you are.”

Rey shuddered nervously but let Ben take her hands down. He kept her hands in his own and drank with his eyes her every feature.

“Rey, I… I love you.”

And there it was again, Rey’s smile, this time on lips that were rosy and extended wider than her nose. This smile also created dimples on her cheeks and narrowed her eyes, but not enough to make them disappear. He was ready to drown into the warmth of those eyes when she said:

“I love you, too.”

And then he bent down to kiss her. He had made a couple of guesses about how it would have felt with the gilliand Rey and never been sure if it would work out. But now their mouths fit together just perfectly, and her taste and scent made his head spin.

Chewie started applauding and signalled their audience to join him.

Ben scooped his arms under Rey's knees and shoulders and carried her off the stage towards the woods where they had come from. The officers figured that the wedding was over and started to shout orders at the stormtroopers to retreat in order to their sleeping quarters.

But looking at the dragon who had swallowed their Supreme Leader and who was now following Ben, Rey and Chewie out of the base, the troopers saw their chance. All of them turned around and sprinted towards the spaceport area. The officers lifted their blasters but before anyone shoot, they realised that the order to shoot fleeing stormtroopers had come from the Supreme Leader. They understood this was also their own chance, dropped their weapons and ran after the troopers.

Soon the spaceport area was crowded. Helmets and armour were thrown away regardless of the cold air. Most of the stormtroopers had not felt outdoor air on their skins after childhood, and now the air was filled with excited screams. Everybody was cramming into ships and taking course to their home planets or – in the case of those who did not remember their home - just any planet they had heard positive rumours about or seen on missions.

The Generals looked at the chaos for a while, thinking about whether to start shooting at the swarming mass of their subordinates or to join them. Looking at each other and seeing in everyone’s eyes the same tiredness and longing for their families, they wordlessly decided to join.

Rey told Ben several times that she could walk herself, but he insisted on carrying her all the way to the Falcon. When they reached the ship, he put her down, expecting that they would all need to work on getting the dragon on board again.

But to their surprise, it crawled back on the snow and purred. They all patted it as a farewell. They would probably miss it but were happy that it had found a planet where it enjoyed the climate.

Chewie and Ben sat down in the cockpit and Rey buckled up behind them. Chewie could barely make it through the takeoff sequence. The air was getting so thick with human pheromones that he had to struggle not to pinch his nose impolitely. When they were finally on autopilot, he made his way towards the main hold for fresher air and growled:

“I can sleep on the sofa.”  
  


* * *

  
When Rey opened her eyes, Chewie had already taken them out of hyperspace and landed next to Han and Leia’s house under the morning sun. Rey was first not sure in which body she was. She wanted to move her hand from under the blanket so that she could look. That woke up Ben next to her.

He wrapped an arm around her, stopping her hands from moving. But he reached his nose to rub against hers and the small movement he did to reach its both sides told her that she had stayed as a human. Rey flinched a little, out of habit, but admitted to herself that it did not matter anymore, just like nothing else did as long as she was with Ben.

And they lived Happily Ever After.


End file.
